The Black Sea Marathon for youth and adults “Marine diversity”

The Black Sea marathon is an educational interactive initiative of the EU4EMBLAS project for the youth and adults in Georgia and Ukraine. Its main goal is to raise awareness about the rich diversity of the Black Sea and its peculiarities, to get eco-habits, and support environmental actions towards its conservation.

The marathon last 23 days, and each day, its participants got a piece of information presented on behalf of the marine inhabitant and an interactive task.

An example of the task of the Black Sea marathon:

Hi, my name is Nestor. I’m the bastard sturgeon from Sturgeon’s family.

Just like you, I very much miss the Black Sea. Before, I used to live there and migrated widely to spawn upstream of the Danube, Rioni, and other rivers. Then people started to build dams there, so since then, the way to come back has been closed for me so that I couldn’t turn back home.

The task: find the nearest river to you and create a waterway map to the Black Sea and how to return to the sea, starting from your river.

I will wait for your maps in the comments to this task until 12:00 pm tomorrow.

89 participants finished the marathon: 49 in Ukraine and 40 in Georgia.

🇺🇦 In Ukraine, there was no limitation on age (whole families could take part). The youngest participant was six years old, and the oldest was 64 😊. Geographically the whole of Ukraine was covered. 95% of the tasks were similar for Ukraine and Georgia. 5% of tasks reflect the current situation in Ukraine. As far as it is dangerous to walk on the marine coast now in Ukraine, the tasks did not require the presence at Sea. The tasks also included mine safety, rules on how to define whether swimming there is possible, and so on.

🇬🇪 In Georgia, the marathon was focused on the Black Sea youth from Poti, Kobuleti, Batumi, etc. The average age of the participants was 12 years old.

In Georgia, an offline educational event and the awarding procedure are planned this weekend in Batumi, in Ukraine, the participants will get their presents (eco cups, bags etc) by post. на In Georgia, an offline aquaculture educational event and awarding procedure took place 5th of August in Batumi.

The participants really enjoyed the marathon. Here are some of their reflections:

“I would like to thank to organizers❤️ The idea with quests was very fresh, and its implementation was just super!💪💪💪 So much work was done behind the scene! We wish you strength and inspiration! Greetings to the marine inhabitants! We dived deep into the Black Sea topic with interesting facts, memories, and biodiversity. It is a great format!”

“The marathon of the length of vacations! 😀 Thanks for allowing us virtually to jump into the Black Sea!”

“It was unforgettable summer at the Black Sea, although being several hundred km from it!”

Here are some examples of the creative answers of our participants!